


Prowl on the Court

by Metal_Chocobo



Category: Women's Basketball RPF
Genre: F/F, Minnesota Lynx, mascot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-31 08:08:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6462517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Metal_Chocobo/pseuds/Metal_Chocobo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a team promotional, the fans voted their favorite Lynx player in to play Prowl in a best best of three game of one-on-one basketball. Janel had never been more embarrassed to be a favorite. At least Lindsay wasn't on the bench watching her play the mascot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prowl on the Court

“You can’t be serious,” Janel hissed. “I am not playing one-on-one with the mascot!”

“You are or you can sit the game out instead of starting,” Coach Reeve said. “The fans voted that they wanted you playing Prowl. So you’re gonna do it unless you want to piss off the owners by screwing up their promotional event.”

“Fine,” Janel frowned, crossing her arms. Coach Reeve patted her on the arm.

“It’ll be over before you know it. It’s best out of three, which I think you can handle,” she said.

Janel rolled her eyes. Like that would be hard. She’d be facing off against a kid in a fur suit with an oversized head. No challenge there. Still, she wanted this over with enough time to psych up for the game so Janel just nodded and let Coach Reeve join the team.

What she hadn’t expected was that her entire team returned to the bench early. She ignored the announcer’s spiel as she stared at her traitorous teammates. Seimone was laughing at her outright, while the rest hid their snickers. At least Lindsay hadn’t come out to watch this mockery. The point guard had gotten shoved down hard enough last night that she wasn’t starting, though she was still playing. Coach Reeve just wanted her to rest a bit for a few days before letting the star go all out again.

Janel turned to face the mascot. She wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. It was probably some kid from a local high school in the suit. Someone who loved the sport and had skill, but not enough to ever make it on the court professionally. The owners liked offering that sort of opportunity to local teams, made for good grass root connections. Normally Janel would encourage giving the kid as much time to shine as possible, but normally it was Maya, Seimone, or Lindsay doing this crap, not her. Janel would feel bad for the shrimp—even with the oversized Lynx head she towered over her—but she was too annoyed to care.

Prowl gave her a wave and Janel nodded back congenially. No need to completely crush this person’s spirit. She’d let Prowl get one half-chance then end this. No muss, no fuss, and Coach Reeve wouldn’t be able to say she wasn’t a participant, even if they were hoping for more of a show. Janel just wasn’t that way.

They took their positions at the center circle. If this were a real game Janel’s attention would be focused solely on the ball in the ref’s hand. Instead she was looking at Prowl. The mascot’s head was pointed up at the ball and she could barely see the painted on blue eyes over the protruding nose. Obviously Prowl was a lot more focused than she was on making this into a serious event. That made sense; this was a lot more serious for the kid.

When the whistle blew Janel found herself jumping as if this were a real game. She couldn’t help herself as it was ingrained in her to go for the ball. However, a padded paw knocked the orange globe away from the center and firmly into the mascot’s possession. Prowl whipped down the court and shot from the paint just as Janel reached the three-point line. The ball sailed into the basket barely swooshing the net. The crowd cheered and her team broke out into whoops and laughter. Janel barely kept her jaw from dropping and instead clenched it tight. Okay, the kid was better than she expected. Guess that meant Janel had to be serious.

Since it was only the two of them Janel headed over to retrieve the ball. However before she could cross the baseline Seimone had retrieved the ball and sent it spinning on her finger. She held of her hands wordlessly asking her teammate for a pass so she could get this over with.

“I’ll toss it in for ya, since it looks like Prowl’s giving you a bit of trouble,” Seimone laughed.

“I can handle it,” Janel growled. “It’s just a kid in a fur suit.”

“You sure? Because that kid just got past the great McCarville and scored without breaking a sweat,” Seimone retorted. After a pause she added, “Or maybe she did break a sweat. Those things have got to be like a sauna inside.”

“Just throw the ball in. Please,” Janel whined. “We’ve got an actual game to play and I’d like to start it on time.”

Seimone chuckled, but did as Janel asked, allowing play to resume. She started dribbling slowly up the court. Prowl pranced up to her, arms wide and paws waving wildly. Janel had planned on just pushing her way through her opponent like she usually with the smaller women, but that damned Lynx head threw her off balance. It was just too large. Before they were close enough for Janel to just slide on by Prowl was head butting her and she had to pull back to avoid an ear to the eye. This was all Prowl needed to steal the ball. Janel spun around grabbing the Lynx’s jersey, but that didn’t stop the mascot’s shot. As they were right under the net it was no surprise when Prowl’s shot hit the backboard, rimmed the hoop, then fell in.

Janel wiped her brow. It was already hot and sweaty, which made sense as she was seriously embarrassed. The crowd loved it, but there was no reason the starting center of the Minnesota Lynx should be getting schooled this badly by Prowl. Forget about her teammates teasing her, she was giving the rest of the league prime chirping material. At least Lindsay wasn’t seeing this.

No jokes this time. Janel was gonna score. Prowl might have already beaten her on points, but the mascot couldn’t possibly beat her at her best. Even if this kid would end up a first round draft pick, it was still a kid in a fur suit. She didn’t have Janel’s experience, conditioning, or size. She would not succeed in her third attempt.

The moment Janel caught the throw in she was down the court. Prowl tried to intercept her twice—that was a speedy mascot—but she used her superior ball handling skills to outmaneuver. Prowl’s paws might be bigger than Janel’s hands, but she was better at palming a basketball.

She carried it out of her zone into Prowl’s for the first time in their little game. She could feel the mascot right on her heels, which was amazing. The kid had to be ready to pass out in that hot suit. If she had been in that suit she would have passed out ages ago and been carried off the court, so Janel had to give the kid props for that. The dogged determination Prowl displayed reminded her of Whalen. Lindsay never gave up, always insisting on just one more round even after they had played for hours and Janel had to get on with her farm chores. Fences couldn’t mend themselves and while their dog was great at minding the cows, he couldn’t do a thing about mucking out the barn.

Janel came just to the three-point line and made a jump shot. Even with the extra point it wouldn’t beat Prowl, but she could still show what a WNBA player was capable of. She couldn’t dunk, Griner was the only woman she had heard of doing that, but Janel looked pretty badass when she made this shot every time under ideal conditions and they didn’t get more ideal than this on the court.

The ball arched perfectly through the air. It hit the rim bounced onto the backboard and landed back on the rim teeter tottering in a precarious balance. Janel grinned. This was how the shot usually worked for her. Just as the basketball finally decided to fall on the inner side of the ring a paw batted the basketball away. She didn’t know how, but Prowl had reached it in time. A mixture of groans and cheers came from the crowd. Some of them were sad Janel was unable to sink her shot, while others were interested in seeing Prowl blank her. That wasn’t even the way basketball worked; you out scored your opponents by piling on points, not keeping them from getting any.

Asia tossed the ball in for Prowl. The mascot was really dragging. Considering the fact Janel was already sweaty she couldn’t imagine how bad it was in the fur outfit. She really ought to let Prowl score for the kid’s sake, even if she’d have issues about it afterward. Still, she couldn’t make it look like she let Prowl win.

Janel sprinted over to intercept Prowl. After trying to cover as much ground as possible the mascot adopted a defensive dribbling style as she neared. The kid probably didn’t have enough energy left to chase her down the court again if Janel stole it. That was certainly tempting, she hated losing, but she decided to do the right thing and let the kid win. The fur suit was punishment enough. So she made several decent attempts at grabbing the ball, which Prowl successfully warded.

They slowly moved back into Janel’s zone at an appropriate pace. It was all a matter of showmanship now. Making it look good was easier than expected as Prowl’s head continued to impede Janel’s ability to get close. The painted blue eyes on Prowl’s head were also a little unnerving, especially with the continuous panting. When Prowl finally made the shot Janel automatically jumped, blocking the shot. However, the Lynx caught the rebound and whipped around the center. Janel accidently elbowed the mascot in the top of the head causing the oversized mask to spin around. That didn’t seem to matter though because Prowl hurled the basketball up at the net. It ricocheted right back at the mascot, but with all the confidence of an actual lynx, Prowl steadied her head, caught the ball, and shot it through the hoop.

The crowd went wild. Even Janel had to clap at that, but she stopped quickly because the kid was about to fall over. Janel stepped up and caught Prowl in a bear hug just as the mascot collapsed. As the announcer rained praise down on their performance she supported her into the Minnesota Lynx locker room. As soon as Janel could set Prowl down she did and pulled off the mask. The sooner she cooled off this poor kid the better. The center was unprepared to find Lindsay of all people under the head. Well, at least that explained why she could keep up with Janel.

“Lindsay?” Janel hissed in confusion. “You’re not some high schooler!”

“No,” Lindsay wheezed in agreement. “Surprise.”

“What the hell are you doing in there?”

“The girl who won the contest came down with bronchitis. Since we didn’t find out about it until this morning I offered to fill in.”

“But you’re injured!”

“Not really,” Lindsay argued, “the team docs okayed this.”

“You fell badly last night,” Janel insisted.

“Not that badly, and since Coach isn’t playing me until the second half, just to be safe, I could easily play as Prowl for the pregame show,” Lindsay explained. Janel handed the overheated woman a cold washcloth. “I just hadn’t realized how physically draining being a mascot could be.”

“Why’d you do it?” Janel asked.

”Didn’t want to disappoint the fans expecting to see Prowl play. You gotta admit we gave them something fun to watch.” Lindsay’s mouth twisted into something resembling a smile. This made Janel smile because the other woman had never been any good at smiling, even when she was the best of moods.

“We sure did. You were much better than I expected.”

“That’s right. I beat you,” Lindsay laughed.

“I was going easy on you,” Janel insisted. “Thought you were some poor high schooler.”

“I beat you while wearing a fur suit and oversized head. I think I had the larger handicap,” Lindsay said dryly. The guard reached up and stroked Janel’s cheek, which felt weird, as she was still wearing Prowl’s paws. “Besides, I saw exactly how you were playing after I made that first basket and you were pissed. I beat you fair and square.”

“Fine,” Janel agreed, rolling her eyes. “What kind of prize do you want?”

“Why don’t we figure that out after we win and get home, okay?”

“Sounds good to me,” Janel grinned. She bent down and they kissed briefly. She would have liked it to continue longer, but Lindsay slapped her rear.

“You need to get out there before they start the game,” Lindsay said. “Hopefully you’ll handle the ball jump against Fowles better than the one against me.”

“I let you win that.”

“Sure.”

“You gonna be okay?” Janel asked, not wanting to leave Lindsay unattended if she wasn’t feeling well. “Need any help?”

“Yeah. I’ll be on the bench as soon as I get out of this suit and towel off,” Lindsay promised. “Sure, you’re generally faster at undressing me than I am, but I’m wet enough this thing is practically ready to slide right off.”

“I bet you are. You were playing against me after all,” Janel smirked.

Lindsay just glowered at her and pointed one oversized paw at the door. Snickering Janel held her hands up in surrender as she backed away. She jogged onto the court with a big smile on her face. Sure, she was going to get shit about being beaten by the team mascot from all quarters for the next few months, but Lindsay would make it worth her while. She was always very generous when she was pleased with herself. For the moment though Janel pushed those thoughts out of her head as she stared up at Sylvia, waiting for the referee. She was a Minnesota Lynx and she had a game to win.

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize for all the basketball inaccuracies, I don't know much about the sport.


End file.
